


Haunted House

by freelancemn



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-16
Updated: 2017-02-16
Packaged: 2018-09-24 20:38:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9785132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freelancemn/pseuds/freelancemn
Summary: “Secrecy, my dear,” The woman said. “We have lived here for a hundred years and intend to live hundreds more. For that, anybody who discovers our true nature must pay the price.”





	

Some people swore the house was haunted. The people who had lived there nearly a hundred years ago were said to have been seen just the last week, before the disappearance of a cow from the nearby farm. The townspeople found its pale corpse in the ditch four miles away. The couple were known as the Briarwoods, but they were meant to have died out years ago. A new group of people had just moved into town, and they knew nothing of the legends surrounding the abandoned residence. The reckless ones decided to investigate once told of the rumors, but were discouraged from doing it at night as originally intended by the one determined to keep them all alive. Her name was Trickfoot, and she was the moral compass of the group, saving them on multiple occasions. Fresh out of college, the group wasn’t quite as cautious as they probably should have been. The most reckless of them all, Vax, decided to investigate the next day. As he approached the deserted house on the hill, he felt a chill run down his spine and promptly proceeded to ignore it and walk faster. When he knocked on the knotted wood door, it swung open without a noise. He began to walk into the room, squashing any instinct of self-preservation in interest of what was inside the house. As the door swung shut behind him, a silky voice came from the shadows.  
“We’re so glad you could join us here in our humble abode.” A tall figure emerged from the shadows, followed by a slightly smaller woman, who moved to stand by his side. “It’s been such a long time since we have had any visitors.”

Vex, the twin sister of Vax, shot out of bed. She quickly dressed herself and sprinted to Vax’s door, and after seeing he was gone, ran to Trickfoot’s door in the house they shared. “Pike, open up!”  
“What’s wrong?” Pike asked, opening the door a crack and squinting against the light.  
“Vax is gone. I think he went to check out that house.”  
Pike threw on her clothes as fast as possible and woke up the rest of the house. As they armed themselves with flashlights and their phones, they began to congregate in the main hall. Marching to the house on the hill, they encountered no resistance other than a seemingly unnatural chill permeating the air as they drew near. The door opened smoothly and the group walked in, whispering to each other. A light turned on at the end of a hall, leading them to a staircase leading into the depths of the earth. As they descended, they took a moment to prop the door open so it wouldn’t trap them on the cold stone staircase. When they reached the bottom, the group found a tank filled with a strange green oil taking up most of the space in the large room. Another light flashed from the edge of the hallway, a phone flashlight slowly blinking on and off. The morse code for S.O.S. came once, twice, and stopped. The group advanced slowly towards the light, but once they had all passed the tank, the room was suddenly lit up, and a couple was revealed, with Vax bound at their feet.  
“Move and the boy dies!” A sharp voice rang out, coming from the tall man, although his mouth had not appeared to move. Pike immediately halted the group.  
“What do you want? Why are you holding him?” She asked as her voice trembled in fear.  
“Secrecy, my dear,” The woman said. “We have lived here for a hundred years and intend to live hundreds more. For that, anybody who discovers our true nature must pay the price.”  
A small handheld remote appeared in the hand of the tall figure, and he pushed the button that was on the center. A small fracture appeared in the tank, and a hissing noise filled the room. The strange green liquid began to seep from the crack and pool on the floor, eating through the stone in seconds.  
“What do we do? Pike shouted, grabbing Vax and untying his hands.  
“Get out of here fast. That acid won’t stay put long.” Vex replied, ushering the group back up the staircase. “The door is locked! I left my picks at home, any ideas?”  
“I can kick it down,” offered Pike, clearing the path to the door. Planting her feet on the ground, she kicked the section near the door knob twice. The door caved in and she stumbled through, followed by the rest of the group.  
“You were supposed to die down there,” a voice hissed, the man looming ahead of them. “No matter. We can still kill you here.”  
“Try again,” Pike said, grabbing her heavy flashlight and clubbing the man on the head. As he crumpled to the ground, she caught his body and flung it down the stairs into the approaching pool of acid. “You aren’t killing anybody today.”  
The woman began to shriek, throwing herself at Pike, clawing at every inch of her flesh she could reach. “How could you? Murderer! Murderer!”  
Vex reached for the woman, yanking her off of Pike. “No you don’t.” She shoved her onto the stairwell, then quickly slammed the door shut, blocking it off with a chair. The woman’s blood-curdling screams could be heard until they exited the house, shaking and trembling. Nothing was ever the same again after that.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for an english project earlier this year, hope you enjoyed it! Sorry about formatting, I copy/pasted from my docs.


End file.
